So, the Quantum Shorts story competition has come round again. I didn't think I'd manage to write a story for it this year, what with NaNoWriMo and everything, but then Twitter sparked off an idea... Who can't get behind a story featuring cats and libraries? I started off with a spin on Schrodinger's Cat, based …

So this weekend I did something a bit different from usual. I ran a writing workshop! It came about through a meeting of the Friends of Penketh Library (FOPL for short), who have been organising lots of events to support and promote the library. There's recently been a big consultation about the future of Warrington's libraries, …

So, back in August I entered a local writing competition run by Stockton Heath Writers Group. As I've been concentrating on longer writing, I felt rather rusty - 1200 words seemed to go by in a flash! However, I polished up three stories while I was on holiday and sent them on their way. I …

A Jar Of Thursday Thunderclap and giveaway Have I mentioned that I've set up a Thunderclap campaign for A Jar Of Thursday? 😉 If you haven't heard of one before, a Thunderclap is a big synchronised social media share, with the purpose of making an impact. As you can see, it's going pretty well, with 72 supporters at …

As blog posts go, this one is a check-in to let you know that I haven't been eaten by an Alsatian (or the cat). I've just been busy doing things. In my last post I talked about sending my manuscript to a small army of beta-readers for the very first time, and joked that I …

This Friday I was pretty determined that, unless the prompt rang no creative bells at all, I'd try to get a story in at Faber Academy's QuickFic contest. As it happened, I loved the prompt photo...but my first cobbled-together draft of a story came in at 438 words, and at QuickFic you only get 250 …

Today, Friday 18 December, is a sad day, because the Flash! Friday website closes today. This morning I woke up and there was no Flash! Friday email in my inbox encouraging me to write a flash fiction by midnight, inspired by a photo, a novel or a dragon's bidding. Often I didn't write a story, because I …